kagablog

41. The Hold Steady – Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant)

- successfully walking the line between sincerity and contrivance is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s neatest tricks, but one of the hardest to pull off – Thin Lizzy and early Bruce Springsteen are such obvious touchstones for this Brooklyn outfit, with their big city rock sound, their coolly offhand rock gestures and their big, urban mythmaking rock lines, that my first impression was that they better have something to go with that to avoid becoming just a nostalgia act before their time, and it seems they do – they have such an obvious feel for the classic rock history they equally obviously love and respect it’s easy to condone the fact that Phil Lynott’s ghost seems at one point actually to have joined the band

42. Magik Markers – Boss (Ecstatic Peace) / Thurston Moore – Trees Outside The Academy (Ecstatic Peace)

- while it was certainly the Sonic Youth connection that caused me to investigate the Magik Markers in the first place, I don’t think it was the fact that Lee Ranaldo produced this release on Thurston Moore’s label that caused me to make an immediate association between Elisa Ambrogio’s melodically deadpan, slightly bored vocal style and that of Kim Gordon, or between the way the group shifts seamlessly, and in the same piece, between proper songs and sonic experimentation and a younger, more fervent version of the great New Yorkers – the title of Moore’s own album seems to represent the music within particularly well, with relatively plain speaking, elegantly textured acoustic guitar driven and violin decorated songwriting growing organically from the more intellectually rigorous explorations in sound and clamour that still populate the edges (and, in the hands of Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis, some of the centre) of this record

43. Fanfare Ciocarlia – Kings And Queens (Asphalt Tango) / Taraf de Haïdouks – Maskarada (Crammed Discs)

- these genuine bands of gypsies (probably the two bands of Romanian gypsies, in fact) spread their stylistically significantly diverse if geographically related wings to outstanding effect here, and I’m not just talking about the fantastic Fanfare Ciocarlia’s lunatic brass band version of classic rock classic Born To Be Wild that you may have heard in “Borat” – they round up a glittering array of mainly singing but also playing Roma guests from the wider Balkan diaspora (including the astounding Esma Redzepova) for this programme, and then, instead of sitting back and watching what happens, match them stride for melodramatic stride all the way to the finish line – the band of brigands, on the other hand, usually all wild, scratchy fiddles and ancient croaking vocals, tackle a mainly Balkan and generally balkanistically styled classical set (Khatchaturian, de Falla, Albeniz – you know, the real McCoy) with a flair, a flavour and a musicality that not only would have made Bartók proud, but seems not a whit out of place next to the half dozen traditionals or near traditionals that complete the show

44. Tony Cox – Blue Anthem (Instinct Africaine/Sheer Sound)

- Cox’s special skill (setting up tight, intricate, often blindingly dexterous acoustic guitar patterns based on roots music forms) seemed different enough from now demised Cape Town improvisational trio Benguela’s (the slow, patient, development of electric soundscapes out of the bare bones of a groove and a few melodic threads) to make their collaboration intriguing rather than obvious – each must have had to make accommodations, but it works, and sometimes wonderfully, though best when it’s less clearly structured and more interactive

45. The New Pornographers – Challengers (Matador)

- “Challengers” may not deliver quite the immediate power pop rush of its forerunners, at least after the Brian Wilson-ish opener and its vaguely Beatlesque-via-a-more-indie-sussed-Jeff-Lynne successor, yet all of the band’s strengths (the greatest of which is AC Newman’s songwriting gift, whose melodic sense soars so naturally yet so often takes such unexpected turns) are on show again with a few additions (there’s a distinct flavour of early Roxy Music about All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth, for example), maybe just not as obviously – and it can never be a bad thing to have Neko Case as an occasional vocal foil

46. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch)

- whether “Sky Blue Sky” is (as some commentators believe) a return to the rootsy alternative country of “Being There”, or is not (which is what I think – I was going to suggest it’s anything but, but I can see at least some of their point), it’s definitely a departure from the “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”/ “A Ghost Is Born” band that I thought for a moment might be the best in the world – it looks back, and perhaps over its shoulder, at ‘70s singer-songwriter antecedents (and the Beatles, particularly on Hate It Here) and, consequently (again notwithstanding what some of those same commentators believe), sounds more like a Jeff Tweedy (as opposed to a Wilco) album than any of the others – it’s more musically conventional, too, and more comfortable as a result, which may be why, despite its fine songs and obvious general excellence, I still, after many rewarding plays, can’t place it higher than this

47. Steve Earle – Washington Square Serenade (New West)

- Earle recently left Nashville to live in New York City (Tennessee Blues tells a story of leaving that Guitar Town told of arriving twenty odd years earlier – according to the latter everybody told him he wouldn’t get far with 37 dollars and a Jap guitar) and this album focuses, without entirely foregoing songs of the South (Oxycontin Blues) or politics (Red Is The Colour … red, ironically, being the colour allocated to traditionally Republican states, Steve’s Hammer (For Pete) … Seeger, in case you wondered), on his new home (City Of Immigrants) and his new life (Days Aren’t Long Enough) and his new wife (Alison Moorer sings gorgeous back-up) – the sound is a bit newer, too, and the production, by the Dust Brothers’ John King, a bit sharper, though, this being Earle, mandolin and banjo are never far away – it’s the sound of a contented man, for the time being anyway

48. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver (DFA)

- whether the game you play while listening to LCD Soundsystem’s second album turns out to be Spot The Influence or Spot The Homage (there is a difference, and learning it will keep the fun going for hours after the game is up – others have spotted David Bowie, by the way, along with Joy Division, Kraftwerk and any number of dance producers that operate beyond the crushingly obvious, but there are others, whether deliberate or not), James Murphy’s pretty well seamless co-operation between rock and dance styles displays plenty of originality, too, as well as highly developed songwriting chops

49. Alasdair Roberts – The Amber Gatherers (Drag City) / Chris Wood – Trespasser (RUF)

- with its strong melodies, slightly stylised lyrics and titles like Riddle Me This, The Cruel War and The Calfless Cow, “The Amber Gatherers” sounds very much like an album of traditional songs, like its fine predecessor, “No Earthly Man” - the revelation in the sleeve notes that all songs are by Alasdair Roberts (copyright control) came as a genuine surprise, a testament to how well Roberts, in some ways a vocally more lithe and marginally less fragile Scottish Will Oldham (the producer of “No Earthly Man”), quietly goes about his business – there’s even a point where I’m reminded, obliquely enough to be intrigued, of a young, less bluesy Bert Jansch – I guess Chris Wood might occupy the point where, lyrically, a gentler Billy Bragg meets, musically, a less earthy Nic Jones or Martin Carthy – the songs, again steeped in the tradition and immersed in various contemporary considerations of Englishness, are, except two, Wood originals, with the epic Hugh Lupton co-write, England In Ribbons, nothing short of monumental

50. Dàimh – Crossing Point (Greentrax) / LAU – Lightweights And Gentlemen (Reveal)

- my longstanding passion for rootsy Celtic traditional music was well catered for during the year and, after much soul searching, these two bands seemed the best way to show you that real Celtic music has nothing to do with waterfalls and mist, or even Enya for that matter – Dàimh is a six piece from Ireland, Scotland, Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia and the Irish/American music scene that covers all of those bases; LAU is a Scottish trio comprising three of that tradition’s finest young musicians and, in Kris Drever, whose wonderful “Black Water” was an overlooked wonder of the previous year, an outstanding young singer – LAU push the boundaries a little with their use of unusual rhythms and ability to drift off into other cultures, while Dàimh play and sing the good traditional stuff with a fire and distinction you may not have encountered since the glory days of the Bothy Band – it’s simple, really, you’ll have to get them both